The best I can say about PSIII is that to me it is... inoffensive. You can play it without thinking much about it, it is not frustrating, hard, grindy, complex, and it is also pretty short. I played it in the genesis classics collection on the switch and crucially... you can flashforward in that game. I played it in flashforward almost all the way through, you can do it through battles, walking arround the overworld, towns and dungeons without a care in the world. And playing like that... I actually had some fun out of it, the story was moving so quickly, the game is so easy, that the few important events that happened happened in quick succession. You can beat one route of this game in like 6 hours and jump to the next one. Truly like a side chapter in your phantasy star saga. It has some interesting concepts... I like how you get a robot immortal companion for the game that follows you up through each generation, I like that the attributes of the main character are a combination of the attributes of the two parents. But yeah... the game is not that good, but it is so inoffensive to me that I don't even recommend skipping it, but I do recommend playing it in fast forward lol
I played Phantasy Star III when I was a teenager and I loved it. The fact you could choose your spouse and have a different offspring you could play with was really groundbreaking at the time, and it motivated me to get all 4 endings. Now, 30 years later, I'll finally play Phantasy Star IV.
Back in the day, my best friend played Phantasy Star 1 and loved it. My first Phantasy Star was the second game and it seemed like it took me forever to beat it. When 3 came out, I was fascinated with the idea of, not just multiple generations, but multiple multiple generations. A straight play through goes, compared to the previous 2 games, fairly quick and I remember my friend being pissed about that and not liking the game. I, however, played through the game the way I think it was meant to be played....multiple times and eventually played through every possible generational iteration. My biggest criticism then was that in combat, you couldn't see your character like you could in 2. I do love the title screen music in 3, it's still some of my favorite game music of all time.
@@JimmyDaKoik I had the exact same experience, my friend played 1 and 2 but didn't like 3, and I had only played 3 since it was at the rental store. I loved Phantasy Star 3 so much, I still think about... I think the characters somehow triggered my imagination and made it the fullest experience I have ever had. Wren, Lyle, Lune, I was just fascinated.
Out of the 4 Main Phantasy Star games I would say Phantasy Star 3 is actually my 2nd favorite behind 4. Part of that is that I find PSIII to be a much more approachable game such as having shorter dungeons and easier enemy encounters while also having faster leveling. I wasn’t really that much of a fan of the difficulty in PSII. And i'm more of a kind of guy that likes playing games that are easily approachable and not too difficult. I also didn’t mind that the story wasn’t set on algo as I actually did found the history and setting of PSIII to be really fascinating and the twist I thought were really good such as how the world they were in was actually a gigantic space colony and that they were descendants of the people of Palma. And I also like how it pretty much mirrors the 2nd game in how it starts off mostly medieval before eventually balancing to Fantasy and Sci Fi setting. The Music is also some of my favorite in the series such as the town and dungeon themes, and I like how the music changes depending on how many characters are in your party as well your condition in battle which isn't’ really something I see all that much. And I really admire it’s ambition of the story taking 3 generations while also having different endings as a way to give the game replayability. Though it’s by no means a perfect game as even I am not blinded by it’s flaws, such as the slow walking, the backtracking, the dialogue being written very plainly with no flavor, the repetitive looking visuals, and the battles can feel a bit brain dead. And it’s pretty clear that the game was really rushed and didn’t have enough time for everything to be flashed out which is why a lot of the final generations where so similar. But for me I really like PS III for it’s ideas rather then it’s execution and unlike most people I don’t plainly judge a work as being bad solely due to the absence of it’s creators, unless if the actual work is really that bad. And as if there ever was going to be a remake of any of the 4 original games I would say PS III deserves a remake the most as it really seemed like it would really benefit for expanding the characters and setting to be fully realised. It’s not a game that everyone will like but for what it’s worth I did really enjoy this game for the reasons that I’ve stated.
It's not my second fav but I've said it's at least more accessible than 2. I don't think it's anymore accessible than 1 until the dungeons become complex. It's less interesting than one. Even worse looking, and very different for the franchise. Can't deny the music is good but the music is good for the entire franchise.
Exactly.. if you played these games at the time (pre-internet) the first 2 were impossible and I didn't actually beat them until a few years ago. 3 was the first one that wasn't impossible. It was an absolute thrill to beat one for the first time when I was 13. Plus Wren turning into vehicles is just about the coolest thing on Sega Genesis.
Your video was a random YT recommendation, and Phantasy Star 3 is actually one of my favourite games of all time (top 3) but I enjoyed your video! 🙂 So PH3 was one of the first games I ever played, and first RPG I ever experienced, my mum, brother and I worked together to complete it and we all loved it. Apparently my mum tried Phantasy Star 2 (I have no memory of this) and just couldn't get past the few dungeon because it was so hard. I actually got round to playing PS2 first time via the gameboy collection years later, and whilst I did complete it and can see why people loved it, I personally didn't as its too grindy for my liking with dungeons too complex. As for why I love PS3, outside of nostaligia there's; - the generation system; its really unique and not been done anywhere else. I liked how each path feels different enough to warrent replays - both in story and parties you have. I love the detail of 'Kara' being either a healing princess or a harden warrior in Gen 3 depending on who you married in Gen 1. - the soundtrack; its also unique - how the overworld theme introduces more layers of the percussion as soon as party members join. Also in battle how the music can sway in intensity depending on how out numbered you are - the character depth is flat yes, and story isn't perfect, but again I like the potiential & how each branching path brings about new things (like learning about who the Dragon was from Rhy's story in Ayn's path but actually getting to meet Lune and learning more about him in Nial's path). I for one would LOVE a Generations-style remake, like they did with 1 & 2, to see what a few pair of eyes can do to fix some of the issues, add back in some of the backstory lost from the Japanese translation, and give more depth to the characters. I doubt we ever will but I'm glad at least PS3 keeps getting re-released in the Sega Mega Drive collections so it's not been lost to time. Anyways, sorry for the long comment. If it helps, I've subscribed 👍
i love long comments like these, no need to apologize at all! glad people can enjoy the video despite a major difference in opinion, and i've been enjoying seeing differing takes from my own. thank you for subscribing, and hope you like more of what's to come next :)
One thing about the Golden Axe side which is interesting is... the person who master minded it is reported to have wanted Golden Axe to be a RPG, but Sega wanted a side scrolling beat 'em up. So that's how Golden Axe first released as format wise. Looking at the dates, it seems like Sega gave the Golden Axe dev him a shot at a RPG with this game in 1990. Then finally let him make Golden Axe into a RPG, Zelda style, with Golden Axe Warrior for the Master System (which is quite fun!)
I think I've got such a soft spot in my heart for this game because it was one of my first JRPGs... actually might have been my 2nd after Dragon Warrior. Looking back now, its flaws are obvious, but I still appreciate quite a bit about the game. The generations mechanic was a really cool idea, but was probably ahead of its time (e.g. the lack in variety of branching paths). The soundtrack, while it uses some really questionable instrumentation at times, did some really cool things. The idea of the battle theme changing depending on which side has the upper hand was a great concept (though the song loops themselves are way too short), and the overworld theme gaining additional layers as you recruit party members blew my mind back in the day. There are quite a few songs from this OST that still get stuck in my head (that intro theme is absolutely perfect, and the shop and town themes are stuck in my head often). I think this game could have been much greater had it been given more time to cook (even with the Golden Axe team at the helm). It's very clear that they rushed things; dialogue is sparse and suffers from shaky translation at times, and entire locations are left unused/are inaccessible. I think if this game had a couple more years to evolve, we'd have gotten a much better product. All that said, I definitely can't blame you for finding a lot to love about it, and it's likely that I'd be in the same boat as you had it not been such a formative RPG experience for me. And granted, if I have to choose between playing 3 and 4 today, it's 4 every single time.
It so sad that this game was a missed opportunity because the idea of having generations take on the evils. But it's sad to hear you didn't like a game. You're usually a beaming positive a joy. ):
Phantasy star 3 is my favorite but I do admit...So much of it comes from a "fanwork" by the actual designers where they describe the characters personalities. thing's they wanted in the game, and more world building. It feels like a game that wasn't given the time it needed to do what it wanted to do. So I really like it for the idea of what it should have been and the influence it seemed to give to Fire emblem 4 which is my favorite one. and not for what it actually is....That being said of the 4 it's the one in the most need of a remake, I would LOVE to see a modern take with actual character, tighter combat difficulty and beautiful landscapes! I don't need AAA just like...A vast improvement. Also the intro is amazing
3 is a tedious slog, I still haven't gotten all 4 endings myself either. Out of the quadrilogy, I'm definitely ranking it at last. But I would be lying if I didn't still enjoy the game despite its issues. And, funnily enough, most of that is the characters. They're incredibly one note in-game, yes, but oddly enough they have some of the most charming artwork and supplemental stories in the whole series. There's a (unofficial) spin-off manga made by the chief character designer that has some incredibly charming stories and paints a picture of what she thought the characters would act like, like the 3rd generation heroes meeting each other and telling stories about their lives and getting into fights, or Lyle's daughter getting hair curls done by Wren's laser pistol. Even some of the official art like Lena hugging an obviously mad Rappy (or Chirper here), or characters triumphantly holding new weapons while Rhys sheepishly looks at his wallet adds so much more character, it's a shame it didn't spill over to the actual game. Plus I'll never get tired of fan art of these characters, especially Wren and Mieu acting as babysitters to the next generation children. The actual game deserves a remake, it had cool ideas but just ended up boring, but I'll always love it for those ideas. I hope you'll enjoy 4. It's definitely the best gameplay wise! I think it has a great story and characters, but I'm personally still a bigger fan of 2's lore and setting. Do you think you'll ever play the Text Adventures? They're an incredible addition to 2 and help flesh out the world in an even more interesting manner. Though some definitely worse then others (Rudger's is easily the worst due to how overly designed it is). There's also Adventure for the Game Gear which is technically a prequel to 2, but it doesn't really have anything to do with that game's plot. And Gaiden is pretty much a non-canon spinoff that I've yet to play lol
it's too bad the supplementary material didn't help this game out, and i agree that i'd love to see it get a remake. i'd honestly love high-budget remakes for all of these games despite my enjoyment for the earlier ones, but anything to give this series more life in today's market. i just want more phantasy star goodness. in regards to 2's text adventures though, i actually played a decent amount of them and found myself having a good time. i really liked 2 overall, so those adding to the experience was a lot of fun. 4's the next game i'll be covering here so i'll get back to you on what i thought of that one :P
I don't think anyone can be "wrong" criticizing PS3. Though I think the music and enemy designs are one of it's good points. Its a game where it needs a lot of kindness from the player. Its very disappointing. But you can see what it's going for with it's concepts. The concept of the characters and situations, not just the generations thing. An android waiting and dying after is an example. Basically there are cool things.
This game is important and interesting for the franchise because it's the most obvious way to expand the series, to fill the gaps by the fans, with 4 different endings in 4/5 paralel timelines, one of them directly modifying algol and being the reason the events in ps2 happen exactly as they do. You still have 3 other timelines where alisa III or / and Neo Palm could have reached a different destination (and now insert here Coral, Ragol, Gurhal or any other fanfic you may feel like imagining)
i will say, the endings themselves are pretty freakin different, even if the journey to get to them felt samey across the board. funnily enough tho that just made their differences all the more jarring because sometimes it felt like the major conflicts being resolved came out of nowhere. such a weird game, this is
While I still rank PSIII last in the quadrilogy, I don't think it's as bad as the internet says it is. The graphics are really nice and, after a couple of playthroughs as a kid, I genuinely came to like the world the game created. It had some really ambitious ideas that didn't get enough time in the oven to be executed properly. P.S. I'm glad I convinced my dad to get me the official hint book (that Babbage's was also selling at a discount if purchased with the game) as it was very useful on successive playthroughs.
Nostalgia. I was 12, this was my first RPG on Genesis. It was the first time I figured I could a the game by its own mechanics without really cheating. When I reached that town in the second zone that had the end tier gear for sale for an unreal amount of cash... I committed to it. Held down my forward button in a corner that kept me moving to get into a fight. Selected auto fight, then I caught Conan the Barbarian on T.V. to pass the time. It was glorious knowing I could cheese from then on. But, I beat the first gen boss and lost them! I hit that reset button so fast!
Nice review! Probably the best out there for this game. I totally agree with your reaction to the dragging plot and flawed gameplay. Having said that, it makes for a great remake into something wonderful. So much potential on display. In an alternative reality this became a top notch experience, when they had the right people (in their right minds) and finances behind it... Greetz from Dezolis.
This game was awesome when it first appeared, I think mostly due to the very small amount of rpgs at the time. I had to wait until Christmas to play this game because I had no money back then but my sister promised to buy it for me for Christmas.
Yea it's age does play a part. My opinion on it changes when I learned it came out way before DQ5. I played it after 4. So it was a step down. Though even 2 looks cooler.
I got into the Sega Medgadrive (Genesis) and RPG games with this title. I even pre-ordered the fourth one when I was able. And with Shining force 1 and 2. Watch all 4 endings. It is still impressive what the team did with the time and resources they had. But I might be biased because it was my real first RPG. Rented it on a weekend, completed it. Rented it again and eventually bought it.
I hated the battle system in this game and the battle enemy sprites and backgrounds, such a letdown from PS1, and PS2, luckily part 4 corrected all of that except no 1st person Dungeons. Maybe one day master Linkei and those indie developers could recreate this game with PS 4’s battle system and graphics or variations of them. If this game would have looked and played like the other 3 it would have been epic like The Empire Strikes Back, instead it turned out more Alien Resurrection.
I feel like I am one of the rare peeps who prefer PS3 to PS2 😅 The OST from PS3 feels very nostalgic and comforting to me even if I only played it for the first time last year and I like the monster designs for their campiness and strange animations, the concept of cyborgs staying with your party for generations is also fun, the lower difficulty was a perfect palate cleanser after the hair-pulling moments of PS2, particularly as PS2 never made me feel like I was progressing, everything was just punishing and the dungeons so labyrinthic. This remix from OCRemix also slaps ruclips.net/video/7KK4a4AxuX8/видео.html
i can definitely see the easier difficulty being a much easier pill to swallow because the other two definitely were pretty relentless. like i said tho the challenge was always one of my favorite parts so breezing through this game did nothing to alleviate my boredom. i do like the cyborgs sticking around tho, and because of how much time i was actually able to spend with them, they ended up being characters i actually enjoyed. mieu and wren were dope!
@@GTSN38 I can relate to this so much, having just recently beat PSII myself. Sadly, I made the mistake of looking up maps online to get through dungeons faster starting from the dams. I say mistake, not because it took something away from the experience, or because I felt like I was cheating -- no, in fact it was still a lot of work just to map out which teleports led to which empty dead ends with no rewards for exploration -- but because by the time I reached dark falz I realized skipping all that "extra" legwork had left me sorely underleveled for him, forcing me to spend a couple days just running around in front of the waiting boss to double my total exp for a few extra levels. By the time I beat him I was just looking forward to being done with the game, and slightly dreading the next game; after all, according to the internet it's "the worst game in the series."
PSIII is a bad game, the combat stinks, and the game feels unfinished. But, I do like the branching path element, and for some reason its got a early nineties charm to it that makes me nostalgic.
Sega chose to use a "smaller" cartridge type for this game, having less memory. Because of this the programmers had to make MANY compromises including cutting dialogue, cutting animations and so forth. Had they chosen to use a "larger" cartridge, like the one for Phantasy Star 4, then this game would have had the chance to be much, much more than it was forced to be. That being said, I love this game. It was my first real introduction to JRPG. I'm about ten hours in to a new game as I write this. I've played the other games in the series, but this is the only one that I still replay from time to time.
While I understand that a smaller ROM might rationalize the overall blandness of overworld (basically a single tile set just with different palettes for grass/desert/snow), it can not justify the lack of dialogues (or storytelling in general). Text weights next to nothing, especially when compressed.
All Ill say is, if this is the worst game in the series, this series is pretty incredible. Its a tough pill to swallow when experiencing it after playing 1 and 2, whether playing today or back when it came out, but PS1-4 is still my favorite multiple game JRPG series.
Love PSIII (Nostalgia love but still). It was my introduction to jrpgs, even though it isn't much of one. No i didn't think of Zelda, Willow, Battle of Olympus, etc of the NES era.
Gonna be perfectly honest, Phantasy Star 2's dungeons (and this was with patches by the way) frustrated and bored me to the point where I didn't even care about trying and mostly fastforwarded through battles to get to the plot. So, getting to Phantasy Star III recently and navigation and battles being a lot easier and smoother, I've been enjoying it more. Sure, the plot's not been nearly as good, but it's been a much more chill experience. I actually dig the artstyle. It's not as colorful, but the environmental design is fairly decent compared to the first two games. The towns actually kind of look like towns instead buildings strewn randomly around bits of greenry. There's also a smooth watercolor look about everything that's pretty easy on the eyes even if I am more of a fan of the harder lineart in the other games. I also don't find the music to be bad at all. I actually like the dynamic music for the overworld based on how many party members you have and the dynamic music in battle based on how well it's going for you or for the enemies. It helps to have the parallax scrolling patched back in from the JP version too. Unlike the US version, it creates a sense of implied movement during battles that a static screen never will. I don't know. It probably works best as a stream game or a hang out game where you can just kind of relax and talk to people while you're going through it.
This was my very first RPG. While maybe not a great game it has a ton of nostalgia for me. Just picked it up more than 30 years later. I will go back and play 1 and 2 later.
I spent hours trying to figure out why I wasn't healing at the Inn or by using items. I gave up and had to watch the internet for answers, I knew it was gonna be stupid. The poison mechanic so early in the game and barely noticeable is so lame xD
I love this game dearly, but I can't present you with any arguments. Everything you said about it is true. But this was my very first RPG, and what made me fall in love with the genre. I remember reading some tips for it in magazines, and it blew my mind the things you could do, like how you had to talk to a character to learn something, then go somewhere with that information to affect some change in the world... It felt (from the descriptions) like playing a movie; at least it did to me, who was used to playing only action games at that point. And then I played it... Suffice it to say it's my second favorite Phantasy Star game (guess which one is the first), and one of the only two I actually finished. And then there are the ideas, poorly realized as they were, that were never tried before or since, like the generations stuff. I'm a sucker for good ideas, and have a high tolerance for poor execution if it's not a total disaster. It also helped that the game was easy. Had I started playing from PSII, maybe I would be too frustrated to even finish it, and who knows how it would affect my current love for RPGs? So maybe, just maybe, this was exactly the game I needed to ease me into the genre. All in all, I agree with many other commenters here: of all the Phantasy Star games, this is the one that would benefit from a remake the most. Here's hoping the saga is part of Sega's new initiative of developing games for their classic franchises. Imagine a series of Final Fantasy VII-like remakes for all the four classic PS games? One can dream...
I haven't played it yet, but I intend to once I get a original physical copy. I do like PSII though despite how a lot of people say it's a bad game or that it's too hard. My main point is though... if you can get EXP multipliers or easy mode for a RPG... you are far less likely to be involved in it. The time spent grinding and investing in upgrading your characters makes you feel a lot more invested in the game and it's world. Whereas if you can breeze through it on easy mode /w exp multipliers you aren't going to have to feel connected to it.
Another banger! Really enjoyed the comedic timing of this one and a slightly more negative take on the game while still keeping it fun/funny XD! Can't wait for more and take care 🙂
PSIII was complete garbage. It was rushed to market and the team that worked on the previous titles were moved to create Sonic the Hedgehog instead of this game. EVERYTHING about this awful slop was an offense to the senses. The visuals were garbage. Hell, the character designs from the original game (on the Master System) were vastly superior. The combat system had some interesting concepts but they were all half-baked and need more refinement before releasing to paying customers. The music was so awful that I honestly reset the console multiple times when I first got into combat because I thought the game froze (the music sounded like the system crashed). The multi-generational concept was also nice but half-baked. The multiple endings were mostly passable but everything leading up to them were a slog to get through. Marriage choices weren’t really deeper than a starting location and a few different enemies. The stories progressed through the generations nearly identically - even when they didn’t make any sense. The re-used content is insufferable. This entry is so terrible that many chose to skip it and consider the original Phantasy Series as a trilogy of PS1, PS2, & PSIV. What a waste of a game.
I admit, I haven't played this one much, but I admit I didn't really feel much about it the little I did play. I think the idea of branching generational paths is awesome and really ambitious for a 16-bit game, though, it kinda reminds me of the Agarest War series, which admittedly is divisive in itself. At some point, I wanna give this one an honest try myself
and i hope you like it when you do! i just wasn't feeling it at all, especially after sitting on it. whenever i replay these classic games i might just skip this one lol
this game ny brother brought home when i was super young looked so cool, i never saw anything like it. the game made me want to learn how to read just to play it.
I personally like this game but it has it's problems but I like the music setup when you gane new members to your party and an easy-to-use commands in the battle segments but that's about it. Unfortunately it followed ps1 and ps2 the second one being my favorite. It just lacks the story and tone of the others not to mention as intriguing story lines.
This is one of those games where it helps to look at the potential of what isn't there, rather than focusing on what is. It hurts to play, because you want it to be better than it is. To that end, a properly done remake/re-imagining would do wonders for it.
The Megadrive was my very first console and I got it in '92. In 1993 Phantasy Star 3 (on Megadrive) and Heimdall (on Commodore Amiga) were the very first RPGs I ever played and I loved them both. While I will agree with you that PS4 is the best in the series and possibly my all-time favourite Megadrive game (along with maybe Sword of Vermillion), this was my first foray into the genre and I adored it. PS4 uses the graphics engine that 2 did and I really didn't like that at all. In comparison PS3 uses an incredibly beautiful graphics engine with great buildings and the character sprites and enemies are far superior to 2 and 4. As my first RPG, it did take time to get used to the mechanics, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I even hung around the last town of the first generation, (maxxing out Rhys, Lyle and Lena to level 41) so that I could buy the Planar weapons and armour for the first gen boss. Mieu and Wren could level up to 85, but that was because they were playable in all 3 generations and giving them the Planar stuff allowed you to carry them over to the characters in the next gen. Planar is even more powerful than Laconian weapons from previous games and if you grind the levels, you could return to previous areas and feel like a god. This is the one thing that I absolutely hate about PS2. In Phantasy Star 2 it takes waaay too long to level up and even if you do max out your characters at level 50, you DON'T feel powerful at all and that was a very big nail in 2s coffin for me. You wander around and die ALOT and that's no fun at all. In summation, the beautiful graphics, revolutionary sound design (beautiful intro too), interesting characters, weapons, storylines etc. for me this is the second best in the series after 4. I played 2 after this and hated it, played 1 on a Master System after that & thought it was ok. 4 was the last I played and although it was far better gameplay, 3 looks & sounds much better IMHO. And also remember the incredible PSO on Dreamcast...? That specifically follows on from this game... Thanks for the video...! 👍🏻
I have a colleague from the UK who would borrow his friend’s Mega Drive in the 90s to play this one. I remember thinking as he told me this: why? He liked it but I know it is the worst in the series. Wonder if the UK even got IV…man that game is sick.
I played it when it was new and loved it. Even then, I knew it was flawed but it had something not all rpgs had at the time and something I needed . Replayablity, yes sometimes the chapter were similar or almost the same but I was a poor kid who had to replay every game many times because I wasn't getting g another for a while. For me it was great, flawed but great.
I'm about to continue my PS journey after beating the Sega Ages version of the first game earlier this year. The second game's difficulty makes me a bit nervous espexially without the built in map feature from the first. I just want to get to IV haha
11:20 nostalgia and vision; the signs of where they were going was 100% there; add to that interviews suggesting that they had to cut "massive" amounts of content. I'm pretty sure the game was supposed to be much more epic, and i've seen a theory that all the endings are cannon. even though the combat was bad; they had music adjust for how well you were doing in the game, there are vast empty spaces for seemingly no reason; and that cut-scene part was probably due to rushed development? but I like to imagine clone gestalt sages telling it piece by piece as you walk by, or something like that. I think they wanted the equivalent of a DND campaign but due to limitations in budget time and hardware rushed it out the door and moved on to other projects.
0:50 Yoshiharu Gotanda leaves Wolfteam to form Tri Ace because Namco oversimplified Tales of Phantaisa. Zaffre plays a remaster of Star Ocean and judges a 1996 action RPG by 2019 standards and calls it too simple. Bro were still waiting for you to review Phantasia,Destiny,Eternia and by the time you get around to it the fan translation for Destiny 2 will be out. It's gonna be fun lol. The more you wait the more they're going to age.
i'm done with tales, it's all most of my audience cares for. it's so frustrating to only be associated with one thing and only asked about that one thing for the entirety of my internet presence. if you're just sticking around in hopes i cover the games you want just save yourself the time, it's not happening.
First off you more than likely discovered this game a decade or two after its release, based off the way you are assessing it. You've completely forgotten to compare these against their contemporaries, pre FF2 era of JRPG's. Though I don't think this was the strongest iteration in the series, but by no means was it actually bad, it was simply very different from the rest of the series. There's a good reason why you don't understand the lack of character development and story, there is actually a very very legitimate explanation for this that forgives the series in that regard. I'll actually be covering that when I cover this particular game myself. Aside from that I love your enthusiasm and fandom for the series, I can respect that
FFI having literally four blanks for main characters (a grim legacy of tabletop RPGs, mainly D&D, with custom-built parties) in 1988 is no excuse for PSIII having blanks for a story-given characters in 1991. Even love-interests of MCs are completely empty: they either virtually absent (Maya, Alair), or just one-liners (Thea, Laya).
I feel like this would have been a pretty good game if it hadn't had the PS imprimatur. Not an excellent game, but pretty good. But I agree, compared to the other three, it's quite lackluster.
I also didn't enjoy Phantasy Star 3 for similar reasons. The only thing I actually appreciate about this game is the continuity with the rest of the series, which was really well done. At least Phantasy Star 4 is great, it pays hommage to the rest of this series, has the best battle system and the best dungeon design. Phantasy Star 4 can look a bit generic at first, but trust me, it's worth it! I hope you'll have a great time with it and already am looking forward to the review!
Oh wow haha, trippy. I just played through Phantasy Star 2 and 3 for the first time ever last week, and I could find zero redeeming qualities whatsoever about 2, and felt like 3 was infinitely better in every single way.
will you make tales of arise revo video I am new to jrpg games by new I mean I didn't play but one pokemon emerald and sword art online fetal bullet and it's one of my best games until a week ago I played octtopath but I didn't like the story so I found tales and your channel and started with tales of Xillia and it's quite good but what after it I want to play arise but I know that way it will be harder to go back so I want to leave it last so should I go with xillia 2 or skip it and play Abyss then Vesperia then Berseria then arise or there is good one that I should put it in between and great videos by the way I really like your channel
Gotta say, I played a lot of RPGs in the 90s and have been going back and playing a lot of ones I missed and maybe this one would've seemed good back then, but I tried playing it, recently and I was bored to tears. It has none of the fun and character I look for in an RPG. It was the same, everywhere you went and I really couldn't get into it.
As a Phantasy Star fan, this game is disappointing for the animations, look, and more traditional setting. However, coming from an NES Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior perspective, this game has a little more advanced visuals and a familiar medieval fantasy realm with a bit of sci fi mixed in. The story is also probably one of its stronger points, involving ancient warring races, androids, lineage, and the mysterious state of the world. Also, factor in that the Sega Genesis didn’t have that many stand out JRPGs, and it is easy to see why this game is still talked about to this day.
Phantasy Star 4 was my first ever RPG and still one of my favorite games to this day. 3 however is a game I have learned I will never like. I've tried many times over the course of decades to give this game more than a fair shot but I could honestly never stomach it. I enjoyed 1 and 2 but never 3, I hope you are looking forward to 4.
Minor Dragon Quest V spoilers This is my third favorite of the four. I like IV and I more but vastly prefer this to II. One of the reasons Dragon Quest V was such a huge letdown when I played it on the DS was because I expected the marriage choice in that to have the same kind of impact the marriage choices in this had.
I just finished my firs tplaythrough of ps3, it wa sok, i felt it wa s abit too grinding woth how often rng battles happen, the overworld musoc changing depending on partys memebers being alive or dead was neat, the varying battle music while confusing 90% was neat too for its time, but yeah it was an eff around and find out rpg for me
This game desperately needs a remake. As stated in the video, the characters as presented are pretty bland. A bit of a deep cut, but the character designer (Toyo Ozaki) had some pretty interesting concept art and character notes, at least in her headcanon, giving the cast a lot of interesting personality!
Guess my love for this is equivalent to how some feel about Legend of Dragoon which is generic across the board and imo makes it worse than technically worse Jrpgs because its so mid at everything, excluding its one gimmick, Dragoon forms which the game ruins.
I’d say the worst PS game is the second one. It’s a frustrating pain in the ass. All it really is is just a walking and grinding game with the encounter rate TOO HIGH! I tried playing PSII years ago. I got the best equipment that was available. I filled my inventory with healing items. I STILL got my ass handed to me in the first tower. I used up all of my healing items and magic points. F*ck Phantasy Star II.
Phantasy Star III is better than II for one reason: the Nei gear dungeons in II. If you didn't have a guide or trudge through with trial & error by pen & paper, even having to retreat back to town to recover, the puzzles were by far the most frustrating thing in the entire series. Honestly, without a guide, I would've quit II before finishing it. III didn't trap you like that, and each successive generation genuinely made your party much stronger than the last. An individual level up rarely mattered in II but was usually meaningful in III. Overall, III was in fact at least bearable to play through, while II only was if you had the patience of a saint.
This game is flawed all over the place! The only reason I loved playing this as a kid was the mind-blowing black hole ending. They end up back in time at Earth for humanity's first contact with aliens. This drives them to come back to Algo for Phantasy Star 2's end reveal. Just that little bit fills in PS2's surprise ending very nicely. The other 95% of the game does quite suck.
Honestly, this game is 2.5 in the trilogy. It’s never fit….the planets stick together like a bad capsule hotel. Graphics in towns look more like sword of vermillion, and not P.S. Symbols were used in battle systems…why? It’s a unique idea, and was there to fill a void during this time of the genesis lifespan. Of all games in the series, it’s really the only standalone title that could have been it’s own series post PS1.
While the game starts decent (well, apart from the main charater or Mieu lacking *any* sort of reaction to Miun encounter, which is dumb by any standard), by the third generation it falls apart: towns with no habitants apart from the obligatory "Welcome to Corneria" guy, dungeons with no encounter table assigned to them (defaulting to "Chirper 1" encounter), characters never met before suddenly appearing without any introduction (Siren on Nial branch), whole domes of giant map having no purpose whatsoever (Terminus as a whole, Rigidia almost there also) as developers could not imagine what to do, characters without any conclusion (what happened to Ryan?), completely inaccessible passageways ("worldbuilding" being the sole purpose of their existence?)… It is awful all around. The devs couldn't manage what they intended to do. Diverse branching plot is a ton of work and very few teams accomplished this.
This game is dramatically improved by a sadistic time limit on the store demo. And only owning pre crash consoles at home. And no music that wasn't Christian music, or recorded on story book audio cassette. The opening title theme took me to far away lands beneath an alien sky. Could they see our star? Did they ever feel alone in the universe too? The actual game itself almost doesn't matter.
Yeah 3 is the one that seems the most experimental. Haven't played it yet so i can't give a personal opinion but I've definitely been hearing mixed compared to the others
They're all experimental in different ways. That's one of the things I appreciate about this series, including III here. They all tried really ambitious new concepts for the time that they came out, way before their contemporaries did the same. While it didn't necessarily work out in this case, it's still interesting to talk about.
it is a shame when your playing thru a series and get to THAT point where something feels off, like sometimes the B team or new team entirely could make something good but doesn't hit the mark, I feel that with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gate to Infinity. looking forward to PSIV
there tends to always be that one, yeah, which sucks here because i loved the concept of 3. but hey maybe this was a needed wake up call to the devs that this was a series deserving of more attention and care. we'll have to see about that with phantasy star 4 which is what my next video's on
The best things I can say about PS3 were the graphics tiles and backgrounds were pretty. Also some of the music tracks were good too, the theme was excellent.
I’d like to defend Phantasy Star 3. I started with PS4 on release day, 30 years ago or whatever. Played 2 then 1, sometime in the 90s. Finally gave 3 a run in 2022. And I liked it, despite having no nostalgia attached it is definitely second fave after 4. The plot, when it finally happens late game, is fantastic. I’d just slogged however many hours being like “how is this actually a Phantasy Star there is nothing of the series lol” to really really enjoying the explanation. Sure, I wish there was more plot scattered around but 1&2 were barebones plot at best. The characters in 1-3 are all vaguely defined at best. I didn’t care about any of them. I loved that Wren turned into vehicles and so he was my favorite I guess. Music in 3 was way catchier than 1/2 for some reason. I liked how the main theme got more filled in as you recruited your full party. And it was cool that battle music changed based on how well the battle was going. I hated PS2 for being boring and sloggy with ridiculously long dungeons (2 is the worst in the series). I hated PS1 for pits and weapon damage randomness. All 3 of these games are old and janky and rough to play. 3 was definitely the most creative to me, and despite it moving slower than paint drying, it wasn’t as painful to play. I was surprised how much better it was than the black sheep reputation it has. Yeah, it’s a hot mess. But it is a hot intriguing and weird mess that really tried to do things, even if it didn’t really succeed. That being said, I hope you’ve had a chance to play 4. It is better than the rest of the series in every single way, and is one of the best games of all time.
The best I can say about PSIII is that to me it is... inoffensive. You can play it without thinking much about it, it is not frustrating, hard, grindy, complex, and it is also pretty short.
I played it in the genesis classics collection on the switch and crucially... you can flashforward in that game. I played it in flashforward almost all the way through, you can do it through battles, walking arround the overworld, towns and dungeons without a care in the world. And playing like that... I actually had some fun out of it, the story was moving so quickly, the game is so easy, that the few important events that happened happened in quick succession. You can beat one route of this game in like 6 hours and jump to the next one.
Truly like a side chapter in your phantasy star saga.
It has some interesting concepts... I like how you get a robot immortal companion for the game that follows you up through each generation, I like that the attributes of the main character are a combination of the attributes of the two parents. But yeah... the game is not that good, but it is so inoffensive to me that I don't even recommend skipping it, but I do recommend playing it in fast forward lol
I played Phantasy Star III when I was a teenager and I loved it. The fact you could choose your spouse and have a different offspring you could play with was really groundbreaking at the time, and it motivated me to get all 4 endings. Now, 30 years later, I'll finally play Phantasy Star IV.
Back in the day, my best friend played Phantasy Star 1 and loved it. My first Phantasy Star was the second game and it seemed like it took me forever to beat it. When 3 came out, I was fascinated with the idea of, not just multiple generations, but multiple multiple generations. A straight play through goes, compared to the previous 2 games, fairly quick and I remember my friend being pissed about that and not liking the game. I, however, played through the game the way I think it was meant to be played....multiple times and eventually played through every possible generational iteration. My biggest criticism then was that in combat, you couldn't see your character like you could in 2. I do love the title screen music in 3, it's still some of my favorite game music of all time.
@@JimmyDaKoik I had the exact same experience, my friend played 1 and 2 but didn't like 3, and I had only played 3 since it was at the rental store. I loved Phantasy Star 3 so much, I still think about... I think the characters somehow triggered my imagination and made it the fullest experience I have ever had. Wren, Lyle, Lune, I was just fascinated.
Out of the 4 Main Phantasy Star games I would say Phantasy Star 3 is actually my 2nd favorite behind 4.
Part of that is that I find PSIII to be a much more approachable game such as having shorter dungeons and easier enemy encounters while also having faster leveling. I wasn’t really that much of a fan of the difficulty in PSII. And i'm more of a kind of guy that likes playing games that are easily approachable and not too difficult.
I also didn’t mind that the story wasn’t set on algo as I actually did found the history and setting of PSIII to be really fascinating and the twist I thought were really good such as how the world they were in was actually a gigantic space colony and that they were descendants of the people of Palma. And I also like how it pretty much mirrors the 2nd game in how it starts off mostly medieval before eventually balancing to Fantasy and Sci Fi setting.
The Music is also some of my favorite in the series such as the town and dungeon themes, and I like how the music changes depending on how many characters are in your party as well your condition in battle which isn't’ really something I see all that much.
And I really admire it’s ambition of the story taking 3 generations while also having different endings as a way to give the game replayability.
Though it’s by no means a perfect game as even I am not blinded by it’s flaws, such as the slow walking, the backtracking, the dialogue being written very plainly with no flavor, the repetitive looking visuals, and the battles can feel a bit brain dead.
And it’s pretty clear that the game was really rushed and didn’t have enough time for everything to be flashed out which is why a lot of the final generations where so similar. But for me I really like PS III for it’s ideas rather then it’s execution and unlike most people I don’t plainly judge a work as being bad solely due to the absence of it’s creators, unless if the actual work is really that bad.
And as if there ever was going to be a remake of any of the 4 original games I would say PS III deserves a remake the most as it really seemed like it would really benefit for expanding the characters and setting to be fully realised.
It’s not a game that everyone will like but for what it’s worth I did really enjoy this game for the reasons that I’ve stated.
It's not my second fav but I've said it's at least more accessible than 2.
I don't think it's anymore accessible than 1 until the dungeons become complex. It's less interesting than one. Even worse looking, and very different for the franchise.
Can't deny the music is good but the music is good for the entire franchise.
Exactly.. if you played these games at the time (pre-internet) the first 2 were impossible and I didn't actually beat them until a few years ago. 3 was the first one that wasn't impossible. It was an absolute thrill to beat one for the first time when I was 13. Plus Wren turning into vehicles is just about the coolest thing on Sega Genesis.
Your video was a random YT recommendation, and Phantasy Star 3 is actually one of my favourite games of all time (top 3) but I enjoyed your video! 🙂
So PH3 was one of the first games I ever played, and first RPG I ever experienced, my mum, brother and I worked together to complete it and we all loved it. Apparently my mum tried Phantasy Star 2 (I have no memory of this) and just couldn't get past the few dungeon because it was so hard. I actually got round to playing PS2 first time via the gameboy collection years later, and whilst I did complete it and can see why people loved it, I personally didn't as its too grindy for my liking with dungeons too complex.
As for why I love PS3, outside of nostaligia there's;
- the generation system; its really unique and not been done anywhere else. I liked how each path feels different enough to warrent replays - both in story and parties you have. I love the detail of 'Kara' being either a healing princess or a harden warrior in Gen 3 depending on who you married in Gen 1.
- the soundtrack; its also unique - how the overworld theme introduces more layers of the percussion as soon as party members join. Also in battle how the music can sway in intensity depending on how out numbered you are
- the character depth is flat yes, and story isn't perfect, but again I like the potiential & how each branching path brings about new things (like learning about who the Dragon was from Rhy's story in Ayn's path but actually getting to meet Lune and learning more about him in Nial's path).
I for one would LOVE a Generations-style remake, like they did with 1 & 2, to see what a few pair of eyes can do to fix some of the issues, add back in some of the backstory lost from the Japanese translation, and give more depth to the characters. I doubt we ever will but I'm glad at least PS3 keeps getting re-released in the Sega Mega Drive collections so it's not been lost to time.
Anyways, sorry for the long comment. If it helps, I've subscribed 👍
i love long comments like these, no need to apologize at all! glad people can enjoy the video despite a major difference in opinion, and i've been enjoying seeing differing takes from my own. thank you for subscribing, and hope you like more of what's to come next :)
One thing about the Golden Axe side which is interesting is... the person who master minded it is reported to have wanted Golden Axe to be a RPG, but Sega wanted a side scrolling beat 'em up. So that's how Golden Axe first released as format wise.
Looking at the dates, it seems like Sega gave the Golden Axe dev him a shot at a RPG with this game in 1990. Then finally let him make Golden Axe into a RPG, Zelda style, with Golden Axe Warrior for the Master System (which is quite fun!)
I think I've got such a soft spot in my heart for this game because it was one of my first JRPGs... actually might have been my 2nd after Dragon Warrior. Looking back now, its flaws are obvious, but I still appreciate quite a bit about the game.
The generations mechanic was a really cool idea, but was probably ahead of its time (e.g. the lack in variety of branching paths). The soundtrack, while it uses some really questionable instrumentation at times, did some really cool things. The idea of the battle theme changing depending on which side has the upper hand was a great concept (though the song loops themselves are way too short), and the overworld theme gaining additional layers as you recruit party members blew my mind back in the day. There are quite a few songs from this OST that still get stuck in my head (that intro theme is absolutely perfect, and the shop and town themes are stuck in my head often).
I think this game could have been much greater had it been given more time to cook (even with the Golden Axe team at the helm). It's very clear that they rushed things; dialogue is sparse and suffers from shaky translation at times, and entire locations are left unused/are inaccessible. I think if this game had a couple more years to evolve, we'd have gotten a much better product.
All that said, I definitely can't blame you for finding a lot to love about it, and it's likely that I'd be in the same boat as you had it not been such a formative RPG experience for me. And granted, if I have to choose between playing 3 and 4 today, it's 4 every single time.
There are a couple Rom hacks to make it easier but I FEEL your pain
It so sad that this game was a missed opportunity because the idea of having generations take on the evils. But it's sad to hear you didn't like a game. You're usually a beaming positive a joy. ):
they can't all be winners i suppose, but i'd love for this concept to be revisited! probably never will, but hey, it was a neat idea lmao
Phantasy star 3 is my favorite but I do admit...So much of it comes from a "fanwork" by the actual designers where they describe the characters personalities. thing's they wanted in the game, and more world building. It feels like a game that wasn't given the time it needed to do what it wanted to do.
So I really like it for the idea of what it should have been and the influence it seemed to give to Fire emblem 4 which is my favorite one. and not for what it actually is....That being said of the 4 it's the one in the most need of a remake, I would LOVE to see a modern take with actual character, tighter combat difficulty and beautiful landscapes! I don't need AAA just like...A vast improvement.
Also the intro is amazing
Could you tell me more about that semi-fficial fanwork? I love learning more and more from the kinda scattered PS lore
@@soya_kitchens google Phantasy star III character book. Phantasy star cave has a translation
@@yasahana4447 Thanks a bunch!
3 is a tedious slog, I still haven't gotten all 4 endings myself either. Out of the quadrilogy, I'm definitely ranking it at last. But I would be lying if I didn't still enjoy the game despite its issues. And, funnily enough, most of that is the characters. They're incredibly one note in-game, yes, but oddly enough they have some of the most charming artwork and supplemental stories in the whole series. There's a (unofficial) spin-off manga made by the chief character designer that has some incredibly charming stories and paints a picture of what she thought the characters would act like, like the 3rd generation heroes meeting each other and telling stories about their lives and getting into fights, or Lyle's daughter getting hair curls done by Wren's laser pistol. Even some of the official art like Lena hugging an obviously mad Rappy (or Chirper here), or characters triumphantly holding new weapons while Rhys sheepishly looks at his wallet adds so much more character, it's a shame it didn't spill over to the actual game. Plus I'll never get tired of fan art of these characters, especially Wren and Mieu acting as babysitters to the next generation children. The actual game deserves a remake, it had cool ideas but just ended up boring, but I'll always love it for those ideas.
I hope you'll enjoy 4. It's definitely the best gameplay wise! I think it has a great story and characters, but I'm personally still a bigger fan of 2's lore and setting. Do you think you'll ever play the Text Adventures? They're an incredible addition to 2 and help flesh out the world in an even more interesting manner. Though some definitely worse then others (Rudger's is easily the worst due to how overly designed it is). There's also Adventure for the Game Gear which is technically a prequel to 2, but it doesn't really have anything to do with that game's plot. And Gaiden is pretty much a non-canon spinoff that I've yet to play lol
it's too bad the supplementary material didn't help this game out, and i agree that i'd love to see it get a remake. i'd honestly love high-budget remakes for all of these games despite my enjoyment for the earlier ones, but anything to give this series more life in today's market. i just want more phantasy star goodness. in regards to 2's text adventures though, i actually played a decent amount of them and found myself having a good time. i really liked 2 overall, so those adding to the experience was a lot of fun. 4's the next game i'll be covering here so i'll get back to you on what i thought of that one :P
I don't think anyone can be "wrong" criticizing PS3. Though I think the music and enemy designs are one of it's good points.
Its a game where it needs a lot of kindness from the player. Its very disappointing.
But you can see what it's going for with it's concepts. The concept of the characters and situations, not just the generations thing.
An android waiting and dying after is an example.
Basically there are cool things.
This game is important and interesting for the franchise because it's the most obvious way to expand the series, to fill the gaps by the fans, with 4 different endings in 4/5 paralel timelines, one of them directly modifying algol and being the reason the events in ps2 happen exactly as they do. You still have 3 other timelines where alisa III or / and Neo Palm could have reached a different destination (and now insert here Coral, Ragol, Gurhal or any other fanfic you may feel like imagining)
i will say, the endings themselves are pretty freakin different, even if the journey to get to them felt samey across the board. funnily enough tho that just made their differences all the more jarring because sometimes it felt like the major conflicts being resolved came out of nowhere. such a weird game, this is
Maybe a sequel could just roll a dice at the beginning of the game to determine what ending the generation ship got
Personally I don't want that. And the game isn't about time travel so it doesn't establish multiple timelines.
While I still rank PSIII last in the quadrilogy, I don't think it's as bad as the internet says it is. The graphics are really nice and, after a couple of playthroughs as a kid, I genuinely came to like the world the game created. It had some really ambitious ideas that didn't get enough time in the oven to be executed properly.
P.S. I'm glad I convinced my dad to get me the official hint book (that Babbage's was also selling at a discount if purchased with the game) as it was very useful on successive playthroughs.
Nostalgia. I was 12, this was my first RPG on Genesis. It was the first time I figured I could a the game by its own mechanics without really cheating. When I reached that town in the second zone that had the end tier gear for sale for an unreal amount of cash... I committed to it. Held down my forward button in a corner that kept me moving to get into a fight. Selected auto fight, then I caught Conan the Barbarian on T.V. to pass the time. It was glorious knowing I could cheese from then on. But, I beat the first gen boss and lost them! I hit that reset button so fast!
Nice review! Probably the best out there for this game. I totally agree with your reaction to the dragging plot and flawed gameplay.
Having said that, it makes for a great remake into something wonderful. So much potential on display. In an alternative reality this became a top notch experience, when they had the right people (in their right minds) and finances behind it...
Greetz from Dezolis.
The game is 33 years old. When it was released it was a pretty good game. Being a broke teenager this was pretty much my summer video game fix.
This game was awesome when it first appeared, I think mostly due to the very small amount of rpgs at the time. I had to wait until Christmas to play this game because I had no money back then but my sister promised to buy it for me for Christmas.
Yea it's age does play a part. My opinion on it changes when I learned it came out way before DQ5.
I played it after 4. So it was a step down. Though even 2 looks cooler.
I got into the Sega Medgadrive (Genesis) and RPG games with this title. I even pre-ordered the fourth one when I was able.
And with Shining force 1 and 2. Watch all 4 endings. It is still impressive what the team did with the time and resources they had.
But I might be biased because it was my real first RPG. Rented it on a weekend, completed it. Rented it again and eventually bought it.
Not really ambitious. There weren't many changes in personalities or world building. It's a shame.
I'd go for the demon princess by the way.
I hated the battle system in this game and the battle enemy sprites and backgrounds, such a letdown from PS1, and PS2, luckily part 4 corrected all of that except no 1st person Dungeons. Maybe one day master Linkei and those indie developers could recreate this game with PS 4’s battle system and graphics or variations of them. If this game would have looked and played like the other 3 it would have been epic like The Empire Strikes Back, instead it turned out more Alien Resurrection.
It's funny that this games story STARTS at the same time as Phantasy Star 4, but ENDS decades after.
I like this game and the music but i understand your pain, there's a lot of problems.
I feel like I am one of the rare peeps who prefer PS3 to PS2 😅 The OST from PS3 feels very nostalgic and comforting to me even if I only played it for the first time last year and I like the monster designs for their campiness and strange animations, the concept of cyborgs staying with your party for generations is also fun, the lower difficulty was a perfect palate cleanser after the hair-pulling moments of PS2, particularly as PS2 never made me feel like I was progressing, everything was just punishing and the dungeons so labyrinthic.
This remix from OCRemix also slaps ruclips.net/video/7KK4a4AxuX8/видео.html
if you played PSO Episode 4 then "Nostalgia in Solitude" is the music track that makes you feel this game's music is nostalgic :)
i can definitely see the easier difficulty being a much easier pill to swallow because the other two definitely were pretty relentless. like i said tho the challenge was always one of my favorite parts so breezing through this game did nothing to alleviate my boredom. i do like the cyborgs sticking around tho, and because of how much time i was actually able to spend with them, they ended up being characters i actually enjoyed. mieu and wren were dope!
Ps2 was one of the worst jobs I ever had.
@@GTSN38 I can relate to this so much, having just recently beat PSII myself. Sadly, I made the mistake of looking up maps online to get through dungeons faster starting from the dams. I say mistake, not because it took something away from the experience, or because I felt like I was cheating -- no, in fact it was still a lot of work just to map out which teleports led to which empty dead ends with no rewards for exploration -- but because by the time I reached dark falz I realized skipping all that "extra" legwork had left me sorely underleveled for him, forcing me to spend a couple days just running around in front of the waiting boss to double my total exp for a few extra levels.
By the time I beat him I was just looking forward to being done with the game, and slightly dreading the next game; after all, according to the internet it's "the worst game in the series."
PSIII is a bad game, the combat stinks, and the game feels unfinished. But, I do like the branching path element, and for some reason its got a early nineties charm to it that makes me nostalgic.
This one never really clicked with me growing up. Excited to see your take on it. Keep up the great content and keep up the awesomeness
Sega chose to use a "smaller" cartridge type for this game, having less memory. Because of this the programmers had to make MANY compromises including cutting dialogue, cutting animations and so forth. Had they chosen to use a "larger" cartridge, like the one for Phantasy Star 4, then this game would have had the chance to be much, much more than it was forced to be. That being said, I love this game. It was my first real introduction to JRPG. I'm about ten hours in to a new game as I write this. I've played the other games in the series, but this is the only one that I still replay from time to time.
While I understand that a smaller ROM might rationalize the overall blandness of overworld (basically a single tile set just with different palettes for grass/desert/snow), it can not justify the lack of dialogues (or storytelling in general). Text weights next to nothing, especially when compressed.
All Ill say is, if this is the worst game in the series, this series is pretty incredible. Its a tough pill to swallow when experiencing it after playing 1 and 2, whether playing today or back when it came out, but PS1-4 is still my favorite multiple game JRPG series.
Love PSIII (Nostalgia love but still). It was my introduction to jrpgs, even though it isn't much of one. No i didn't think of Zelda, Willow, Battle of Olympus, etc of the NES era.
Gonna be perfectly honest, Phantasy Star 2's dungeons (and this was with patches by the way) frustrated and bored me to the point where I didn't even care about trying and mostly fastforwarded through battles to get to the plot. So, getting to Phantasy Star III recently and navigation and battles being a lot easier and smoother, I've been enjoying it more. Sure, the plot's not been nearly as good, but it's been a much more chill experience.
I actually dig the artstyle. It's not as colorful, but the environmental design is fairly decent compared to the first two games. The towns actually kind of look like towns instead buildings strewn randomly around bits of greenry. There's also a smooth watercolor look about everything that's pretty easy on the eyes even if I am more of a fan of the harder lineart in the other games.
I also don't find the music to be bad at all. I actually like the dynamic music for the overworld based on how many party members you have and the dynamic music in battle based on how well it's going for you or for the enemies. It helps to have the parallax scrolling patched back in from the JP version too. Unlike the US version, it creates a sense of implied movement during battles that a static screen never will.
I don't know. It probably works best as a stream game or a hang out game where you can just kind of relax and talk to people while you're going through it.
Phansty Star III has its own merits when replaying it for a good time.
This should have been a side game and not a sequel.
This was my very first RPG. While maybe not a great game it has a ton of nostalgia for me. Just picked it up more than 30 years later. I will go back and play 1 and 2 later.
I spent hours trying to figure out why I wasn't healing at the Inn or by using items. I gave up and had to watch the internet for answers, I knew it was gonna be stupid.
The poison mechanic so early in the game and barely noticeable is so lame xD
I love this game dearly, but I can't present you with any arguments. Everything you said about it is true.
But this was my very first RPG, and what made me fall in love with the genre. I remember reading some tips for it in magazines, and it blew my mind the things you could do, like how you had to talk to a character to learn something, then go somewhere with that information to affect some change in the world... It felt (from the descriptions) like playing a movie; at least it did to me, who was used to playing only action games at that point. And then I played it... Suffice it to say it's my second favorite Phantasy Star game (guess which one is the first), and one of the only two I actually finished.
And then there are the ideas, poorly realized as they were, that were never tried before or since, like the generations stuff. I'm a sucker for good ideas, and have a high tolerance for poor execution if it's not a total disaster.
It also helped that the game was easy. Had I started playing from PSII, maybe I would be too frustrated to even finish it, and who knows how it would affect my current love for RPGs? So maybe, just maybe, this was exactly the game I needed to ease me into the genre.
All in all, I agree with many other commenters here: of all the Phantasy Star games, this is the one that would benefit from a remake the most. Here's hoping the saga is part of Sega's new initiative of developing games for their classic franchises.
Imagine a series of Final Fantasy VII-like remakes for all the four classic PS games? One can dream...
I haven't played it yet, but I intend to once I get a original physical copy. I do like PSII though despite how a lot of people say it's a bad game or that it's too hard.
My main point is though... if you can get EXP multipliers or easy mode for a RPG... you are far less likely to be involved in it. The time spent grinding and investing in upgrading your characters makes you feel a lot more invested in the game and it's world. Whereas if you can breeze through it on easy mode /w exp multipliers you aren't going to have to feel connected to it.
Another banger! Really enjoyed the comedic timing of this one and a slightly more negative take on the game while still keeping it fun/funny XD! Can't wait for more and take care 🙂
PSIII was complete garbage. It was rushed to market and the team that worked on the previous titles were moved to create Sonic the Hedgehog instead of this game.
EVERYTHING about this awful slop was an offense to the senses.
The visuals were garbage. Hell, the character designs from the original game (on the Master System) were vastly superior.
The combat system had some interesting concepts but they were all half-baked and need more refinement before releasing to paying customers.
The music was so awful that I honestly reset the console multiple times when I first got into combat because I thought the game froze (the music sounded like the system crashed).
The multi-generational concept was also nice but half-baked. The multiple endings were mostly passable but everything leading up to them were a slog to get through. Marriage choices weren’t really deeper than a starting location and a few different enemies. The stories progressed through the generations nearly identically - even when they didn’t make any sense. The re-used content is insufferable.
This entry is so terrible that many chose to skip it and consider the original Phantasy Series as a trilogy of PS1, PS2, & PSIV.
What a waste of a game.
preach the absolute truth, brother
I admit, I haven't played this one much, but I admit I didn't really feel much about it the little I did play.
I think the idea of branching generational paths is awesome and really ambitious for a 16-bit game, though, it kinda reminds me of the Agarest War series, which admittedly is divisive in itself.
At some point, I wanna give this one an honest try myself
and i hope you like it when you do! i just wasn't feeling it at all, especially after sitting on it. whenever i replay these classic games i might just skip this one lol
@@ZaffreRevolution That's totally fair! Phantasy Star is a classic series I definitely wanna catch up on in the near future
It'll always have a place in my heart because it's the first rpg I ever played!
this game ny brother brought home when i was super young looked so cool, i never saw anything like it. the game made me want to learn how to read just to play it.
I personally like this game but it has it's problems but I like the music setup when you gane new members to your party and an easy-to-use commands in the battle segments but that's about it. Unfortunately it followed ps1 and ps2 the second one being my favorite. It just lacks the story and tone of the others not to mention as intriguing story lines.
This is one of those games where it helps to look at the potential of what isn't there, rather than focusing on what is. It hurts to play, because you want it to be better than it is. To that end, a properly done remake/re-imagining would do wonders for it.
The Megadrive was my very first console and I got it in '92.
In 1993 Phantasy Star 3 (on Megadrive) and Heimdall (on Commodore Amiga) were the very first RPGs I ever played and I loved them both.
While I will agree with you that PS4 is the best in the series and possibly my all-time favourite Megadrive game (along with maybe Sword of Vermillion), this was my first foray into the genre and I adored it.
PS4 uses the graphics engine that 2 did and I really didn't like that at all. In comparison PS3 uses an incredibly beautiful graphics engine with great buildings and the character sprites and
enemies are far superior to 2 and 4.
As my first RPG, it did take time to get used to the mechanics, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I even hung around the last town of the first generation, (maxxing out Rhys, Lyle and Lena to level 41) so that I could buy the Planar weapons and armour for the first gen boss. Mieu and Wren could level up to 85, but that was because they were playable in all 3 generations and giving them the Planar stuff allowed you to carry them over to the characters in the next gen.
Planar is even more powerful than Laconian weapons from previous games and if you grind the levels, you could return to previous areas and feel like a god.
This is the one thing that I absolutely hate about PS2. In Phantasy Star 2 it takes waaay too long to level up and even if you do max out your characters at level 50, you DON'T feel powerful at all and that was a very big nail in 2s coffin for me. You wander around and die ALOT and that's no fun at all.
In summation, the beautiful graphics, revolutionary sound design (beautiful intro too), interesting characters, weapons, storylines etc. for me this is the second best in the series after 4.
I played 2 after this and hated it, played 1 on a Master System after that & thought it was ok. 4 was the last I played and although it was far better gameplay, 3 looks & sounds much better IMHO.
And also remember the incredible PSO on Dreamcast...? That specifically follows on from this game...
Thanks for the video...! 👍🏻
I have a colleague from the UK who would borrow his friend’s Mega Drive in the 90s to play this one. I remember thinking as he told me this: why? He liked it but I know it is the worst in the series. Wonder if the UK even got IV…man that game is sick.
I played it when it was new and loved it. Even then, I knew it was flawed but it had something not all rpgs had at the time and something I needed . Replayablity, yes sometimes the chapter were similar or almost the same but I was a poor kid who had to replay every game many times because I wasn't getting g another for a while.
For me it was great, flawed but great.
I'm about to continue my PS journey after beating the Sega Ages version of the first game earlier this year. The second game's difficulty makes me a bit nervous espexially without the built in map feature from the first.
I just want to get to IV haha
Did you ever get around to this one? If you play the Sega Ages version of PS1, then PS2 is really the only one that's a slog.
11:20 nostalgia and vision; the signs of where they were going was 100% there; add to that interviews suggesting that they had to cut "massive" amounts of content.
I'm pretty sure the game was supposed to be much more epic, and i've seen a theory that all the endings are cannon.
even though the combat was bad; they had music adjust for how well you were doing in the game, there are vast empty spaces for seemingly no reason; and that cut-scene part was probably due to rushed development? but I like to imagine clone gestalt sages telling it piece by piece as you walk by, or something like that. I think they wanted the equivalent of a DND campaign but due to limitations in budget time and hardware rushed it out the door and moved on to other projects.
0:50
Yoshiharu Gotanda leaves Wolfteam to form Tri Ace because Namco oversimplified Tales of Phantaisa.
Zaffre plays a remaster of Star Ocean and judges a 1996 action RPG by 2019 standards and calls it too simple.
Bro were still waiting for you to review Phantasia,Destiny,Eternia and by the time you get around to it the fan translation for Destiny 2 will be out. It's gonna be fun lol. The more you wait the more they're going to age.
i'm done with tales, it's all most of my audience cares for. it's so frustrating to only be associated with one thing and only asked about that one thing for the entirety of my internet presence. if you're just sticking around in hopes i cover the games you want just save yourself the time, it's not happening.
Honestly sounds like a remake would help.
A pretty big remake.
First off you more than likely discovered this game a decade or two after its release, based off the way you are assessing it. You've completely forgotten to compare these against their contemporaries, pre FF2 era of JRPG's.
Though I don't think this was the strongest iteration in the series, but by no means was it actually bad, it was simply very different from the rest of the series.
There's a good reason why you don't understand the lack of character development and story, there is actually a very very legitimate explanation for this that forgives the series in that regard.
I'll actually be covering that when I cover this particular game myself.
Aside from that I love your enthusiasm and fandom for the series, I can respect that
FFI having literally four blanks for main characters (a grim legacy of tabletop RPGs, mainly D&D, with custom-built parties) in 1988 is no excuse for PSIII having blanks for a story-given characters in 1991. Even love-interests of MCs are completely empty: they either virtually absent (Maya, Alair), or just one-liners (Thea, Laya).
I feel like this would have been a pretty good game if it hadn't had the PS imprimatur. Not an excellent game, but pretty good. But I agree, compared to the other three, it's quite lackluster.
I also didn't enjoy Phantasy Star 3 for similar reasons. The only thing I actually appreciate about this game is the continuity with the rest of the series, which was really well done.
At least Phantasy Star 4 is great, it pays hommage to the rest of this series, has the best battle system and the best dungeon design. Phantasy Star 4 can look a bit generic at first, but trust me, it's worth it! I hope you'll have a great time with it and already am looking forward to the review!
Oh wow haha, trippy. I just played through Phantasy Star 2 and 3 for the first time ever last week, and I could find zero redeeming qualities whatsoever about 2, and felt like 3 was infinitely better in every single way.
will you make tales of arise revo video
I am new to jrpg games by new I mean I didn't play but one pokemon emerald and sword art online fetal bullet and it's one of my best games until a week ago I played octtopath but I didn't like the story so I found tales and your channel and started with tales of Xillia and it's quite good but what after it I want to play arise but I know that way it will be harder to go back so I want to leave it last so should I go with xillia 2 or skip it and play Abyss then Vesperia then Berseria then arise or there is good one that I should put it in between and great videos by the way I really like your channel
Gotta say, I played a lot of RPGs in the 90s and have been going back and playing a lot of ones I missed and maybe this one would've seemed good back then, but I tried playing it, recently and I was bored to tears. It has none of the fun and character I look for in an RPG. It was the same, everywhere you went and I really couldn't get into it.
As a Phantasy Star fan, this game is disappointing for the animations, look, and more traditional
setting. However, coming from an NES Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior perspective, this game has a little more advanced visuals and a familiar medieval fantasy realm with a bit of sci fi mixed in. The story is also probably one of its stronger points, involving ancient warring races, androids, lineage, and the mysterious state of the world. Also, factor in that the Sega Genesis didn’t have that many stand out JRPGs, and it is easy to see why this game is still talked about to this day.
Phantasy Star 4 was my first ever RPG and still one of my favorite games to this day. 3 however is a game I have learned I will never like. I've tried many times over the course of decades to give this game more than a fair shot but I could honestly never stomach it. I enjoyed 1 and 2 but never 3, I hope you are looking forward to 4.
yeah, 3 was a game i tried with too but like i said it was just missing that secret sauce from the previous two. here's to phantasy star 4!
Oh I just wondering if you'd cover the 3rd game and this pops up, amazing
(still playing PS2 myself atm on your recommandation!)
hope you're enjoying ps2! i've been having a blast with this series despite the obvious weak link
Minor Dragon Quest V spoilers
This is my third favorite of the four. I like IV and I more but vastly prefer this to II. One of the reasons Dragon Quest V was such a huge letdown when I played it on the DS was because I expected the marriage choice in that to have the same kind of impact the marriage choices in this had.
I loved it back in the day. Your gen will never know.
I just finished my firs tplaythrough of ps3, it wa sok, i felt it wa s abit too grinding woth how often rng battles happen, the overworld musoc changing depending on partys memebers being alive or dead was neat, the varying battle music while confusing 90% was neat too for its time, but yeah it was an eff around and find out rpg for me
This game desperately needs a remake. As stated in the video, the characters as presented are pretty bland. A bit of a deep cut, but the character designer (Toyo Ozaki) had some pretty interesting concept art and character notes, at least in her headcanon, giving the cast a lot of interesting personality!
Guess my love for this is equivalent to how some feel about Legend of Dragoon which is generic across the board and imo makes it worse than technically worse Jrpgs because its so mid at everything, excluding its one gimmick, Dragoon forms which the game ruins.
I’d say the worst PS game is the second one. It’s a frustrating pain in the ass. All it really is is just a walking and grinding game with the encounter rate TOO HIGH! I tried playing PSII years ago. I got the best equipment that was available. I filled my inventory with healing items. I STILL got my ass handed to me in the first tower. I used up all of my healing items and magic points.
F*ck Phantasy Star II.
Phantasy Star III is better than II for one reason: the Nei gear dungeons in II. If you didn't have a guide or trudge through with trial & error by pen & paper, even having to retreat back to town to recover, the puzzles were by far the most frustrating thing in the entire series. Honestly, without a guide, I would've quit II before finishing it. III didn't trap you like that, and each successive generation genuinely made your party much stronger than the last. An individual level up rarely mattered in II but was usually meaningful in III. Overall, III was in fact at least bearable to play through, while II only was if you had the patience of a saint.
This game is flawed all over the place! The only reason I loved playing this as a kid was the mind-blowing black hole ending. They end up back in time at Earth for humanity's first contact with aliens. This drives them to come back to Algo for Phantasy Star 2's end reveal. Just that little bit fills in PS2's surprise ending very nicely. The other 95% of the game does quite suck.
Honestly, this game is 2.5 in the trilogy. It’s never fit….the planets stick together like a bad capsule hotel.
Graphics in towns look more like sword of vermillion, and not P.S.
Symbols were used in battle systems…why?
It’s a unique idea, and was there to fill a void during this time of the genesis lifespan.
Of all games in the series, it’s really the only standalone title that could have been it’s own series post PS1.
While the game starts decent (well, apart from the main charater or Mieu lacking *any* sort of reaction to Miun encounter, which is dumb by any standard), by the third generation it falls apart: towns with no habitants apart from the obligatory "Welcome to Corneria" guy, dungeons with no encounter table assigned to them (defaulting to "Chirper 1" encounter), characters never met before suddenly appearing without any introduction (Siren on Nial branch), whole domes of giant map having no purpose whatsoever (Terminus as a whole, Rigidia almost there also) as developers could not imagine what to do, characters without any conclusion (what happened to Ryan?), completely inaccessible passageways ("worldbuilding" being the sole purpose of their existence?)… It is awful all around.
The devs couldn't manage what they intended to do. Diverse branching plot is a ton of work and very few teams accomplished this.
This game is dramatically improved by a sadistic time limit on the store demo.
And only owning pre crash consoles at home.
And no music that wasn't Christian music, or recorded on story book audio cassette.
The opening title theme took me to far away lands beneath an alien sky. Could they see our star? Did they ever feel alone in the universe too?
The actual game itself almost doesn't matter.
Yeah 3 is the one that seems the most experimental. Haven't played it yet so i can't give a personal opinion but I've definitely been hearing mixed compared to the others
They're all experimental in different ways. That's one of the things I appreciate about this series, including III here. They all tried really ambitious new concepts for the time that they came out, way before their contemporaries did the same. While it didn't necessarily work out in this case, it's still interesting to talk about.
My standout memory is the 8 mile dead end in one of the dungeons 😂 😂 😊 😊 😢
it is a shame when your playing thru a series and get to THAT point where something feels off, like sometimes the B team or new team entirely could make something good but doesn't hit the mark, I feel that with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gate to Infinity. looking forward to PSIV
there tends to always be that one, yeah, which sucks here because i loved the concept of 3. but hey maybe this was a needed wake up call to the devs that this was a series deserving of more attention and care. we'll have to see about that with phantasy star 4 which is what my next video's on
리메이크가 나왔으면 게임.3세대에 걸친 방대한 스토리에 비해 짧은 제작기간으로 완성도가 떨어진거 같다. 전투는 4처럼 바뀌었으면 좋겠다. 마을 배경에 변화를 주었으면 좋겠다.
You lost me shitting on Star Ocean 1.
Gotta love Yuji Naka.
Part 1 and 4 are the only good ones.
Love the video! Phantasy Star 3 is good to me only because of nostalgia. It's a terribly bland game otherwise
I remember playing this game when it came out and I absolutely loved this game. Sorry you didn't enjoy it.
PSIII has the best music of the series…
Especially like the losing battle music and final boss music
The best things I can say about PS3 were the graphics tiles and backgrounds were pretty.
Also some of the music tracks were good too, the theme was excellent.
welp
the game is absolute garbage and shouldn't have even got the PS3 label on it
I’d like to defend Phantasy Star 3. I started with PS4 on release day, 30 years ago or whatever. Played 2 then 1, sometime in the 90s. Finally gave 3 a run in 2022. And I liked it, despite having no nostalgia attached it is definitely second fave after 4.
The plot, when it finally happens late game, is fantastic. I’d just slogged however many hours being like “how is this actually a Phantasy Star there is nothing of the series lol” to really really enjoying the explanation. Sure, I wish there was more plot scattered around but 1&2 were barebones plot at best.
The characters in 1-3 are all vaguely defined at best. I didn’t care about any of them. I loved that Wren turned into vehicles and so he was my favorite I guess.
Music in 3 was way catchier than 1/2 for some reason. I liked how the main theme got more filled in as you recruited your full party. And it was cool that battle music changed based on how well the battle was going.
I hated PS2 for being boring and sloggy with ridiculously long dungeons (2 is the worst in the series). I hated PS1 for pits and weapon damage randomness. All 3 of these games are old and janky and rough to play. 3 was definitely the most creative to me, and despite it moving slower than paint drying, it wasn’t as painful to play. I was surprised how much better it was than the black sheep reputation it has. Yeah, it’s a hot mess. But it is a hot intriguing and weird mess that really tried to do things, even if it didn’t really succeed.
That being said, I hope you’ve had a chance to play 4. It is better than the rest of the series in every single way, and is one of the best games of all time.